Updated
The Los Angeles Times has partnered with Mixx, a social news website, to give readers more input in the news they read.
The publication has also said it will start using technology from Aggregrate Knowledge, a Silicon Valley company, to deliver user-driven content suggestions to its web site, starting with its travel section. It lets users see what other users like them have also viewed.
These are the latest moves by a large newspaper to try to include more social or open features into its Web site. Strategies vary widely. Recently, for example, the New York Times started linking to other sites from its Web site, for example — though that effort still lets editors control what stories are pointing to.
The LA Times calls itself the largest metro newspaper in the country, with 2.2 million daily readers. The company said it also invested in Mixx, though the amount was undisclosed (see statement). The company said the stake was small.
Mixx launched in October (see coverage), partially as a way give newspapers and other publishers their own version of the popular news ranking site, Digg. But rather than letting hundreds of thousands of young techies dictate what is popular — as Digg does — Mixx gives control to the individual user. It shows them stories based on where they live and what their self-defined interests are. Its recommendation engine is standard, offering up content, including news stories, video and photos, relating to your previously expressed interests and location.
The company sees itself as being more than a competitor to Digg. It is also a competitor to personalized start pages such as My Yahoo, iGoogle, PageFlakes and Netvibe, chief executive Chris McGill tells us. It offers a one stop place for relevant news and other information, like those sites do. It also offers group and profile features, the components of a social network.
Mixx has signed deals with USA Today, Reuters.com, The Weather Channel, Kaboose and uclick Comics. It is owned by Recommended Reading, of McLean, Virginia. It had previously raised $1.5 million round of funding, in a round led by Intersouth Partners.
The service will be integrated into LATimes’ story pages.
In addition, Times’ content will be “optimized” for searches from within the Mixx site, suggesting results will be biased toward returning LATimes stories.
McGill served as the general manager of Yahoo News from 2000 to 2004 and the vice president of strategy at USA TODAY from 2005 until earlier this year.
The company is getting several hundred thousand unique visitors a month, McGill tells us.
Aggregate Knowledge’s technology, meanwhile, will be rolled out across the LATimes.com site over the coming months. Image here is an example of what Aggregate Knowledge provides for articles on the site. See this page, for example.
2 Comments
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Dustin Sage said:
Interesting that a major newspaper feels that they need a “Mixx” to help them regurgitate the news, when what they really need is to partner with content providers directly. For example, LA Times recently ran a story from http://www.micechat.com, a Disney news site, about people disposing of the ashes of loved ones in Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. Rather than waiting for a story to appear on “Mixx” or “Digg”, LA Times should partner with sites like MiceChat and the hundreds of other high quality niche news sites to have them share the stories directly. This would enable LA Times to post actual fresh content rather than simply reposting what is already being reposted on Digg and Mixx. Sounds like they are on the right track, but not quite there yet.
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Kerry Parkins said:
The founder and CEO of mixx has posted a blog post, refuting the assumption made in this article about the search results “bias.”
http://blog.mixx.com/2007/12/06/welcoming-the-los-angeles-times-and-clearing-up-a-few-questions/
14 Trackbacks
10:01 am
Think Digg Has Jumped The Shark? Try Mixx » Webomatica - Technology and Entertainment Digest said:
[...] Update: Here’s some additional Mixx info from Venture Beat. [...]
12:58 pm
Tiago Dória Weblog » Blog Archive » LA Times com um Digg a tira colo said:
[...] na VentureBeat que o jornal Los Angeles Times fechou uma parceria com o Mixx, uma espécie de [...]
2:12 pm
Newspapers Accelerating Community Features « Screenwerk said:
[...] to Matt Marshall at Venture beat, the Times will also start using recommendations functionality from Aggregate Knowledge: It has [...]
2:38 pm
LA Times and Mixx: Don’t get it - - mathewingram.com/work said:
[...] as Matt Marshall reports at VentureBeat today, the Los Angeles Times has taken a stake in Mixx — a relatively new Digg-style social-bookmarking site whose main claim to fame is that Mike [...]
2:40 pm
LA Times and Mixx: Don’t get it - - mathewingram.com/media said:
[...] as Matt Marshall reports at VentureBeat today, the Los Angeles Times has taken a stake in Mixx — a relatively new Digg-style social-bookmarking site whose main claim to fame is that Mike [...]
2:53 pm
LA Times Takes A Stake In Mixx said:
[...] Venture Beat) Mixx Loading information about [...]
6:49 pm
LA Times Gets In The Mixx « East Coast Blogging said:
[...] very own DC area startup, Mixx from VA, has patnered with the LA Times according to this report from VentureBeat. Mixx will be used on the LA Times online site in much the same fashion Digg [...]
1:27 pm
mixx may be pretty, but it’s going down a slippery slope – by [muhammad.saleem] said:
[...] marshall has broken down the details of the deal and one particular point is especially worrisome: …times’ content will be “optimized” [...]
6:44 pm
Los Angeles Times Takes Equity Stake in Mixx, Integrates with LATimes.com said:
[...] Times invests in social site Mixx.com LA Times invests in Mixx, integrates social news site LA Times Takes A Stake In Mixx LA Times Invests in Social News Site Mixx LA Times and Mixx: Don’t [...]
9:59 pm
LA Times Takes A Stake In Mixx teasered @ Feed UP !! said:
[...] Venture Beat) Mixx Loading information about [...]
6:52 am
Social Media: la diatriba Digg-Mixx e la centralità delle social news | Stalkk.ed said:
[...] Un articolo di VentureBeat riporta che il Los Angeles Times ha siglato una partnership, anche finanziaria, con Mixx, il nuovo sito di social news creato da Chris McGill (ex VP Strategy di USA Today nonché ex General Manager di Yahoo! News) del quale avevo accennato in “Social News: MSNBC-Newsvine, Intel Cool Software, Mixx, Sphinn, Digg Labs“. L’articolo parla anche dell’adozione da parte del LA Times della tecnologia di targeting comportamentale di Aggregate Knowledge, una tecnologia che verrà utilizzata per raccomandare ai lettori del giornale online prodotti e contenuti di vario genere in relazione ai loro interessi. In pratica, il Los Angeles Times apre all’inclusione di contenuti sociali all’interno del proprio sito web, esattamente come qualche tempo fa aveva fatto il New York Times con Blogrunner. E per quanto concerne Mixx, esso si pone come un diretto e temibile competitore di Digg (ma non solo), in quanto il suo sistema Digg-like si propone di fornire un maggiore controllo agli utenti. [...]
12:04 am
Our Techno Lyrics » Blog Archive » LA Times Takes A Stake In Mixx said:
[...] Venture Beat) Mixx Loading information about [...]
9:09 pm
Mixx, social news competitor to Digg, raises another $2 million » VentureBeat said:
[...] on their articles. It raised a small amount of funding from one client, the LA Times, last fall (our coverage). It also has deals with USA Today, Reuters.com, The Weather Channel, and [...]
10:58 pm
OneSpot launches news crawler widget for media sites » VentureBeat said:
[...] it owns, across the entire technology section of its site. Another paper, the LA Times, recently invested in social news site Mixx. OneSpot is likely banking on convincing its clients, which include other, unnamed companies, that [...]